(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a disk device, and more particularly to a CD-ROM disk device, built in a casing of a small-size personal computer, wherein a moving unit on which a CD-ROM is held is movable between an inserted position and a disk-change position in both an insert direction and an eject direction.
(2) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional CD-ROM disk device 100. The conventional CD-ROM disk device of this kind is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No.6-45582 which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The CD-ROM disk device 100 shown in FIG. 1 is a built-in type that is installed in a casing of a notebook-size personal computer for use and operation. A CD-ROM (compact disk-read-only memory) is a type of optical disk which is capable of storing large amounts of information. The CD-ROM is accessed by an optical pickup of the CD-ROM disk device in order to reproduce information on the CD-ROM.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional CD-ROM disk device 100 generally has a chassis 111 and a moving unit 112. An optical disk (not shown) is held on the moving unit 112. The moving unit 112 is movably supported on the chassis 111 via guide rails, so that the moving unit 112 is movable in forward and rearward directions (indicated by arrows A and B in FIG. 1) between an inserted position and a disk-change position. The movements of the moving unit 112 in the eject direction A and the insert direction B are actuated by a manual operation of an operator on the personal computer.
The moving unit 112 is inserted into the chassis 111 in the insert direction B and placed at the inserted position for the operation of the disk device 100. When the optical disk on the moving unit 112 is to be removed or changed, the moving unit 112 is pulled out from the chassis 111 and moved in the eject direction A to the disk-change position, as shown in FIG. 1.
The chassis 111 has a main printed circuit board provided at a rear base portion of the chassis 111. The moving unit 112 has electrical parts, such as a disk motor, an optical pickup and other mechanical elements provided thereon. A flexible printed circuit cable 120, which is shown in FIG. 2, is arranged around a right side of the chassis 111 to electrically connect the electrical parts of the moving unit 112 to the main printed circuit board of the chassis 111. Hereinafter, the flexible printed circuit cable 120 will be referred to as the FPC cable 120.
It is necessary that the FPC cable 120 include a number of wires (e.g., 43 wires) required for the electrical connections between the electrical parts of the moving unit 112 and the main printed circuit board of the chassis 111. Since the moving unit 112 is movably supported on the chassis 111, the FPC cable 120 has a curved portion 120h which is flexibly deformable when the moving unit 112 is moved relative to the chassis 111 in the eject direction A or the insert direction B. In the conventional disk device 100, the FPC cable 120 has a multiple-layer structure wherein each layer of the FPC cable has a limited number of wires provided for the required electrical connections. Three end portions 120d, 120e and 120f of the FPC cable 120, as shown in FIG. 2, are electrically connected to the electrical parts of the moving unit 112, and three end portions 120a, 120b and 120c of the FPC cable 120 at the opposite end are electrically connected to the main printed circuit board of the chassis 111.
Accordingly, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost of the conventional CD-ROM disk device 100 becomes high because the FPC cable 120 having the multiple-layer structure is expensive.
In addition, a CD-ROM disk device having a small size and small height that can be easily built in a casing of a small-size personal computer is demanded in the field. Therefore, it is desirable to design a CD-ROM disk device having a smaller height.
As shown in FIG. 2, the FPC cable 120 includes a vertical folded portion 120g adjacent to the end portions 120d, 120e and 120f, and a horizontal extending portion 120i adjacent to the end portions 120a, 120b and 120c. The chassis 111 has a lowered hollow portion on the right side of the chassis 111 as shown in FIG. 1. Since the disk device 100 must have a limited amount of size, it is necessary that the horizontal extending portion 120i of the FPC cable 120 is arranged at the right side of the chassis 111 above the lowered hollow portion thereof. Since the disk device 100 must have a limited amount of height, it is necessary to make the width "W1" of the vertical folded portion 120g of the FPC cable 120 smaller than the limited amount of height of the disk device 100. For this reason, it is difficult to avoid the multiple-layer structure of the FPC cable 120 in the case of the conventional CD-ROM disk device 100.
Further, the conventional CD-ROM disk device 100 is required to arrange the FPC cable 120 having the vertical folded portion 120g and the horizontal extending portion 120i within a limited space of the chassis 111. It is difficult to design a CD-ROM disk device having a small size and small height in the case of the conventional CD-ROM disk device 100.